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Yeah, it’s the designing and planning part that I struggle with the most.
Luckily, with the frame I’m about to start I had to order a different seattube (originally bought an externally butted one then realised that won’t work very well with that reinforcement plate design I used on the tt/st junction on the last frame) and I’m still waiting for it to arrive so planning and designing is all I can do right now.
I think I tend to work in quite an organic way anyway, preferring to just get stuck in over spending time planning all the details and it has definitely been my undoing in the past.
Definitely think your right about repeat experience though and I think that’s why buying the torch and stuff and just making stuff was the right way for me to learn. I think I’ve a couple more frames and a pile of stems to go before I’ll have spend as much as I would have on travelling to the other end of the country and doing a framebuilding course which would only have seen me build a single frame.
M_V-
Yeh you can’t beat learning by doing.
And re: the frame course, the general consensus seems to be doing one frame building course won’t make you a ‘frame builder’ it’s just a nice way to be able to build yourself a frame in a controlled environment with the guarantee that you won’t be allowed to balls it up.
ThePeginator
That’s the bit about frame building in general that always blows my mind is the measuring and mitring all the tubes and angles etc. I have no idea how you go about achieving that level of accuracy, although I guess with things like bikecad etc a lot of it can be worked out in advance, but I imagine - like many trades - the craftsmanship comes with repeat experience that no amount of computer help can replicate.